Gayle Sierens: NFL broadcaster pioneer

     Or should I just say NFL pioneer or broadcast pioneer? Guessing either or is fine. Anyway, in the final week of the 1987 NFL season (yes during the time she was still with News Channel 8) Gayle Sierens was the first female to call an NFL game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Kansas City Chiefs and the last to do this until Beth Mowins on Opening Week in the 2017 season and since done a few more games since. Of course, if you were from the Tampa Bay Area you would know Gayle Sierens as a long time anchor with News Channel 8 mostly with Bob Hite until her retirement in 2015 which included a moment where Hite returned briefly to anchor with Sierens one last time. How does this come on about? Before she was a news anchor, she started her broadcasting career as a sports anchor which included News Channel 8. She also did some stuff for ESPN before being a news anchor. Which happens quite a bit that someone moves from sports to the news like Keith Olbermann (who's now back to sports with ESPN), Britt McHenry, Kaylee Hartung, Jillian Mele, among others. She ended up getting the attention of NBC Sports executive producer Mike Weisman who asked her if she would call an NFL game. Weisman also was responsible for an NFL game in 1980 between the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins where there were no announcers in the game just in the sounds of the game. He decided to have a woman broadcast a game as his next step. Guessing he looked at Sierens' work in the past (again during her sports days) and the rest was history. She was paired analyst Dave Rowe and she received good reviews and was offered to call six more games in the 1988 season. This is where things got sad or if you enjoyed watching Gayle during the years in the Bay Area you were probably relieved. Sierens' bosses in News Channel 8 who allowed her to call the game in 1987 ended putting their foot saying "hey we spent a lot of money to promote you as our anchor, you are not doing any more games," Honestly that was short-sighted of her bosses to said. Plus they didn't see the bigger picture because if they allowed her to call those six games, they would have gotten millions of dollars of free publicity plus millions of dollars of Ad money if they allowed Sierens to call more NFL games. Also, they could have talked with Weisman about maybe only going to certain NFL cities that weren't too far away for her to go and be back in time for the news the next day. Plus, it was only for six weeks, not 16.  However, her bosses being jerks wasn't the only reason she was one and done. During her trailblazing call, she was pregnant with a son. In her special aired on News Channel 8, she did say if she wasn't pregnant, she would have accepted the six-game offer. So TV News in Tampa and possibly countrywide would have looked different if she did accept the offer. Since Sierens' bosses decided to be A-holes, Weisman needed to find a replacement and found one in Andrea Kremer, who has a long resume covering the NFL. The plan was to train to get ready for the 1989 season. Sadly, it didn't happen because Dick Ebersol took over as president of NBC Sports, fired Weisman for his own guy, and ended any chance of Kremer calling a NFL game for NBC. However, in 2018 Kremer along with Hannah Storm called 11 NFL games on Thursday Night for Amazon Prime Video becoming the first all-female booth team. Also, Beth Mowins who actually lived in Tampa and possibly saw Sierens on TV called two NFL games in 2017 and 2018. Regardless of what happened and believe that her bosses blew a golden opportunity Gayle Sierens is a pioneer.  

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